If you are looking to streamline customers’ shopping experience on your website by making it easy for them to complete checkout quickly, you should consider adding a cart drawer on your website.
As you might have guessed from the name, cart drawers are, well, carts that draw. By draw, we mean they slide from the corner of your computer screen when you add an item to your website. It looks something like this:
When put to effective use, cart drawers can supercharge your website’s conversion rate and allow you to upsell your customers.
If you run your online store on Shopify, you are in luck because setting up a cart drawer would be easy peasy, lemon squeezy. We will show you how to go about it in this post, so stay tuned.
What is a Cart Drawer?
A cart drawer is a small window that slides out when a customer clicks on the add to cart button when shopping for a product.
It shows all the products in the cart including the product availability, price, payment option and shipping methods. More of, a checkout page on the product page.
Cart drawers draw more attention than conventional checkout pages because of its user-friendly interface that allows customers to checkout easily without having to navigate to the cart page or go through rigorous checkout processes.
Additionally, you can customize the look and feel of your cart drawer to match your store’s theme making it more cohesive and professional.
Cart Drawer is a must-features to have in your store. Worlds perfectly for every screen size making it easier for shoppers to navigate and shop on their phones and tablets.
Understanding Cart Drawers
You should have a cart drawer on your Shopify store if you intend to improve your shoppers’ experience and increase conversion. Its benefits are tremendous and cannot be over-emphasized.
First, the convenience it provides for customers. The frustration of switching between the product and checkout page is one of the main reasons for cart abandonment. Cart drawers make it easy for customers to view and manage their items without leaving their current page. Shopify cart drawers influence customers to shop more.
Secondly, the increase in sales. It creates opportunities for upselling and cross-selling to customers in a bid to keep them longer in your store. For example, when customers can see their cart products, they can easily add complementary products suggested from the cart drawer. The more reason you should have effective product recommendation strategies in your Shopify store.
Lastly, the reduced cart abandonment rate. Customers would rather leave their cart than go through a long and tiring checkout process. However, with cart drawers, there is no need to worry as they provide all the necessary information such as payment methods, total price and discount rate if any. Having a smooth checkout process reduces the chances of people abandoning their carts before completing their purchases.
Overall, setting up the right cart drawer in your Shopify store can improve the shopping experience for your customers and help boost your sales.
Choosing the Right Cart Drawer App
It’s not just about choosing the first cart drawer app that you see. You need to choose the right app that is compatible with your store theme and has powerful features that will help improve your shopper experience and increase your average order value.
There are lots of cart drawers out there, however we will review 5 of the best Cart Drawer apps in Shopify. The comparison highlights their unique features, prices and how Shopify merchants rate them on Shopify.
UpCart—Cart Drawer Cart Upsell
This cart drawer is developed by AfterSell. It’s unarguably one of Shopify’s best cart drawers. It’s an awesome cart builder packed with powerful features to help you set up and customize an amazing cart experience.
Upcart is the best bet for you if you want to increase your average order value, reduce cart abandonment or increase conversion. It’s tailored in a way to match the rest of your brand.
UpCart Unique Features
Customer reward module to offer free shipping and discounts
Upsell modules where you can show multiple offers and AI recommend offers to increase average order value.
Time bar announcement module to show sales or new releases. Also, you can display sales countdown timers to create urgency.
Express Payment module to show your preferred payment options. Works perfectly with Paypal, Apple Pay and Shop Pay.
The sticky cart features improve the cart visibility as well as display it anywhere you want in your Shopify store.
Price
$14.99/ month for stores with 0 – 50 monthly orders
$19.99/ month for stores with 51 – 200 monthly orders
$34.99/ month for stores with 201 – 500 monthly orders
Ratings
4.8 ⭐
iCart Cart Drawer Cart Upsell
This cart drawer offers all upsell and cross-sell features to keep customers buying more products from your store. It offers different kinds of cart drawers–slide cart, side cart and cart discount. Anything you want in your cart drawer to improve sales, iCart offers it and even better.
iCart Unique Features
Easy to add a side cart, popup cart or full cart page to your Shopify store
Varieties of in-cart upsell options to set cart upsell offer rules
Upsell in cart with progress bar, drawer cart and cart discounts
Analytics dashboard to help make data-driven decisions.
Price
$12.99/ month for stores with 0 – 50 monthly orders
$19.99/ month for stores with 51 – 100 monthly orders
$29.99/ month for stores with 101 – 200 monthly orders
Ratings
4.8 ⭐
Slide Cart Drawer by AMP
Boost AOV and reduce cart abandonment with this cart drawer. Display your cart drawer anywhere on your site to be easily accessible to your customers. Offer irresistible upsell and cross-sell options for your cart drawer.
Slide Cart Drawer Unique Features
Reward Progress Bar to motivate customers to spend more by displaying spending goals.
Discount Bar to apply coupon directly to your cart.
Cart Upsell or Cross-sell to suggest additional items in the cart
Sticky Cart Drawers that remain fixed and easily accessible throughout your store.
Price
Starter plan at $19.99/month
Growth plan at $39.99/month
Pro plan at $49.99/month
Rating
4.9 ⭐
Cartly Slide Cart Drawer
Drive immediate checkout with this high-converting cart drawer. Streamline the checkout process and boost your conversion rate with this cart drawer. Offer instalment options that allow customers to pay by instalment. Easy to use and compatible with platforms like PageFly.
Cartly Unique Features
Upsell carousel to show recommended products in your cart drawer
One page checkout or sticky add to cart button to up cart page conversions.
Vertical cross-sell block to stack up on sales
Pop-up cart for faster checkouts
Price
Starter plan at $11.99/month
Growth plan at $29.99/month
Pro plan at $49.99/month
Rating
4.8 ⭐
How to Install and Configure a Cart Drawer
Two ways to install a cart drawer in your Shopify store:
- Using themes that offer cart drawer
- Through third-party apps
Method 1: Using Themes that offer Cart Drawer
Some Shopify themes support cart drawers. Themes such as Brooklyn, Blockshop, Parallax, Pop, Atlantic, Supply, and Testament are some known apps that offer Cart Drawer features.
Next, Enable the Ajax Cart in the (P) Cart button element to activate. Click on the “More setting” to expand the Ajax Cart Setting. Then, choose the next line of action for your cart drawer. See this guide for more details.
Method 2: Through Third-Party Apps on the Shopify Store
Another way to add cart drawers to your store is through third-party apps. Apps you can find in the Shopify app store. Choose any cart drawer of your choice, and click on the “install” button to add it to your Shopify store.
We’ll illustrate using the AfterSell Upcart Cart drawers to show some of the cart drawer features and customization options.
After you have selected and installed your preferred app, the next step is to customize the design to fit your store theme.
Click on the “design” on the left-hand side panel to expand the customization tab. Check the “inherit Fonts from Theme” box—this matches the cart font to the rest of your store. Alternatively, you can add more custom HTML and CSS codes to your store through the “Settings” tab.
Adding Smart Cart Upsell to your Slide Cart Drawer
Upsells are a great way to recommend more products to customers in a bid to improve your AOV.
Click on “Upsell” from the left side panel to open the customization tab. Choose how you want to add your upsell; either manually or by AI recommendations.
Furthermore, choose the position and direction of your upsell, preferably at the bottom of the cart.
In addition, you can set up shipping protections to assure customers of maximum protection in case of loss or damage during transit.
Adding Reward Motivation Bar to your Shopify Cart Drawer
Encourage customers to shop more by offering discounts and promotions when spend more. Click on the “Reward” tab to set up discounts on your Cart Drawer.
Offer spending targets with rewards such as free gifts or free shipping.
Adding Express Payment Options to your Cart Drawer
Lastly, add the express payment buttons through the “Express Payment” tab in your dashboard.
This allows customers to select their preferred payment option and checkout easily. Choose any of the express payment options such as PayPal and Apple Pay.
As stated, the features may vary according to the apps, so it is important to follow the steps cautiously to avoid mistakes that will affect your store or customers’ experience.
Conclusion
As you’ve seen, setting up a cart drawer on your Shopify store is anything but difficult. If you follow the steps we’ve shared here, you will have one up and running in no time.
